With all the excitement surrounding pregnancy, finding out your baby’s gender ranks up there as one of the most exciting parts.
But you’re probably not the only one excited. Think grandparents, close friends, aunts, sisters, brothers, your other kids (if you have them) or even your neighbors! Seriously, you’re most likely not the only one excited.
Gender reveal parties are pretty big right now. For some couples, simply telling people what they’re expecting doesn’t cut it. Therefore people are coming up with all kinds of unique gender reveal ideas to make the announcement that little bit more memorable and special.
If you’re expecting, you might already be looking for gender reveal ideas to make that moment awesome. So we’ve compiled together unique ways to get the gender secret out.
These gender reveal party ideas below will make your party special, fun and enjoyable for you and your guests. You can combine any of the ideas or just pick the one that resonates most with you.
And whatever you do, make sure it’s celebrated the way you truly want it and share the joy with everyone special to you!
But let’s start first off with the basics…
The Gender Reveal Party Agenda
If it’s your first gender reveal, you might be wondering what actually happens at a reveal party.
To state the obvious, a gender reveal party is about getting people together to discover and celebrate the sex of the baby you’re expecting. And truth is, everyone is delighted whether it’s a baby boy or a baby girl—so you can relax on that part of things.
A gender reveal party is simply just a fun way to let your loved ones in on that moment you discover the wonderful news, so you don’t need to try and be too impressive or make it a huge spectacle since the moment itself is special. Sometimes low-key simplicity works the best anyway!
The main objectives for any reveal party are:
- Eat food
- Have fun
- Reveal the sex of your child
The 1st point doesn’t need much more explanation other than saying you can make the food specifically related to the gender of your child (we’ll give a few ideas below).
The 2nd one deserves a few extra thoughts…Increasing the fun of your gender reveal party isn’t just about plopping a Twister mat on the floor and playing Messy Twister (though that’s not a bad idea), or creating a funny photo booth (another great idea by the way), it’s about creating suspense and leaving everyone guessing for as long as you can.
The 3rd one deserves the most thought because you (probably) don’t just want to pop the gender out of your mouth. That’s why we’ve made this post!
All 32 gender reveal ideas below will help you determine how to reveal your baby’s sex, and are great fun too. Most of the ideas work best if you know the gender beforehand, but some of them can be modified in a way so that the reveal will be a surprise for you or your spouse too!
Gender Reveal Party Ideas
1. Sports-Themed Gender Reveal
If your guests love sports, then you can go for a sports-themed gender reveal party. You simply need to choose a sport that features balls, e.g. baseball, golf, or soccer.
Fill the specialized balls with blue or pink powder. Use blue or pink based on what you are having. Kick/hit the ball and have the powder spread out in the air letting everyone know if it’s a boy or a girl. This is especially great if you have other kids.
2. Drinks Gender Reveal
After leaving your guests guessing as long as you can, serve your guests either a blue or pink-colored drink like lemonade or punch depending on whether you’re having a boy or a girl.
The moment they see the drinks, they’ll probably figure out what gender you’re expecting, but if they don’t get it straight away, bring out either a blue or pink-colored snack afterward too. See if they finally get the hint!
Try to remain silent as long as you can and only officially confirm it once the majority of the group figures it out.
3. Balloons Gender Reveal
There are multiple ways to do a balloon gender reveal, check them out and see which one is best for you!
1st way: Pour pink or blue balloons into a box and then open it up along with your spouse at the reveal party to have the balloons flying around.
If you can make the balloons appear in an unexpected way or from an unexpected place you’ll be awarded sneaky bonus points! For example, you could hang the box using a rope on the ceiling and pull the rope when it’s time.
2nd way: Repeat the steps of the 1st way but this time, use two boxes inside instead of one. Fill one of the boxes with the balloons showing your baby’s sex and fill the other one with nothing. You and your other half can now open both boxes at once and reveal the gender.
3rd way: Use special balloons to spell out “it’s a boy” or “baby girl.” Just blow up the balloons to form the letters and get some awesome pictures.
4th way: Fill a large balloon up with pink or blue confetti and helium, then pop it!
4. Special Package Gender Reveal
Some of your relatives may not be able to make it to the gender reveal party. Try sending them a package. Insert a tag that says “Baby is a…” and make the surprise await them inside.
You then have two options (the 2nd way is for the sadistic among us!)
1st way: Spread layers of tissue or confetti in a box. Mix the colors and then reveal with a gender-specific outfit beneath the confetti or tissue.
2nd way: Decorate a large plain box or use this one, then add increasingly smaller plain boxes inside each other so they keep having to unwrap boxes, one box with blue confetti, one box with pink confetti, etc. Do this as many times as possible and then have the last smallest box contain a small blue or pink dummy inside with a tag saying “it’s a boy!” or “it’s a girl!”
5. Cake Or Cookies Gender Reveal
For a food-related reveal, you can accomplish this with either cakes, cupcakes, cake pops or sugar cookies.
For cakes, bake using either pink or blue food dye to color. Then entertain your guests by letting them guess first and revealing the answer when you open the oven and pull out the cake.
Or if you prefer not to go for a big cake, decorate cupcakes with both pink or blue. Alternatively, make the cupcakes as normal but bake a colored gooey center in the middle that’ll reveal the baby’s gender when guests bite into them.
For cake pops, you can really spice things up by baking or buying a strawberry or blueberry cake pop. Use the flavor as one subtle hint of the baby’s gender, and then use some other ideas on this list in combination.
For sugar cookies, you could be more obvious and just bake them and decorate them with blue or pink to give to your guests as soon as they arrive so they know what to expect.
6. Music Gender Reveal
This idea probably works best combined with another one, but you could make a background music playlist with song titles that give the gender away.
If you want to be dramatic (and obvious) then you could just blast “The Boys Are Back In Town” by Thin Lizzy or “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” by Cyndia Lauper at the big moment—and that’s a fun way of doing it.
Another way would be to try and be subtle and see if you can keep the playlist running longer and see who starts picking up on it. Once the majority of your guests pick up on it, then you can use that as your cue to announce the big news after the song ends!
Here is a suggested 10-song playlist for either sex (they get more obvious as they go along) with Spotify playlist links for each one at the bottom.
Boy Gender Reveal Songs
- Who Let The Dogs Out — Baha Men
- Tarzan Boy — Baltimora
- Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy — The Andrews Sisters
- Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy — Queen
- Sk8er Boi — Avril Lavigne
- Let’s Hear It For The Boy — Deniece Williams
- It’s Raining Men — The Weather Girls
- This Boy — The Beatles
- If I Were A Boy — Beyoncé
- The Boys Are Back In Town —Thin Lizzy
You can find the Spotify playlist for it here.
Girl Gender Reveal Songs
- I’m Coming Out — Diana Ross
- Haven’t Met You Yet — Michael Buble
- Oh, Pretty Woman — Roy Orbison
- Uptown Girl — Billy Joel
- Dancing Queen — Abba
- Girls Just Want To Have Fun — Cyndia Lauper
- Man! I Feel Like A Woman — Shania Twain
- My Girl — The Temptations
- Isn’t She Lovely — Stevie Wonder
- All-American Girl — Carrie Underwood
You can find the Spotify playlist for it here.
7. Paint Fight Gender Reveal
This would be over the top for some groups of people, but if your guests like to have some crazy fun, ask them to bring a set of spare clothes they don’t mind getting ruined to your party and have a big paint fight using blue and pink paint!
You could even create two teams: Team Blue and Team Pink. But make sure you also make it clear people can sit out if preferred.
After the fight, once people are already covered in paint, get everyone into a huddle and grab a bucket of the paint revealing the gender of your baby and throw it all over your guests!
8. Kids Gender Reveal
If you already have kids, they’ll be excited about having a sibling as you are about to have a newborn. So, involve them and make sure they have some fun.
You can even do this in front of the guests. Wear a white t-shirt and blindfold the kid or kids. Have them dip their hands in the correct color of paint and then touch your stomach with it. The color shows the baby’s sex. Don’t forget to take some pictures.
9. Pet Gender Reveal
If you have a pet, then you could get them in on the fun too. Dress them up, one in pink, the other in blue, with accessories to match. This will keep the guests guessing.
If you have only one pet, dress them up with one color, then later on in the party (before you’ve actually revealed your baby’s gender) switch out its color to the other one just to confuse everybody.
This reveal tip is better when you combine it with another.
10. Party Popper Gender Reveal
You can fill these small devices with pink or blue confetti and then pop them to reveal the gender along with your spouse.
11. Car Gender Reveal
If you want an impressive and fun way to reveal your baby’s gender, check out these powder gender reveals you can use to send a plume of blue or pink cloud out of your car exhaust.
To use, open the packaging outside (the powder is very fine and gets everywhere), and pour about one or two cups of it into your exhaust pipe, then stuff it with paper so it doesn’t instantly blow out when starting the car.
Get everyone outside around your car, start a count down, rev your engine, and see the colored smoke fly. Pretty cool!
Alternatively, you can fill pouches up with the powder and attach them to your tires in what’s called a burnout reveal. Easy to wash off too.
12. Scratch-Off Cards Gender Reveal
Give your guests scratch cards to determine whether you’re expecting a boy or a girl. You all find out what it is when you scratch off the card. Make sure everyone does this at the same time. Perfect for a low-key reveal.
13. Team Competition Gender Reveal
When guests arrive at the door, quickly assign teams by giving them either a Team Boy or Team Girl sticker, then you can play team challenges for the rest of the party, ready for the big reveal later.
The team that wins the most challenges can win a prize, and the team whose gender is the actual gender of the baby can win a prize too.
14. Vote Gender Reveal
Hand out voting cards to your guests to choose what they think you’ll be having. You can even reward those that make the right selection with blue or pink gift items.
15. Piñata Gender Reveal
Piñatas come in all different shapes and sizes. Whether you want to stuff one with pink or blue confetti and candy and open with a string or whack it open with a bat and blindfolded, a piñata can be a family-fun way to reveal the gender of your baby.
16. Candles Gender Reveal
Use colored candles to make your gender reveal party stand out. Like the other ideas here, there are many ways you could achieve this.
You could simply put lots of pink or blue candles around the house or garden and light them if your party is in the evening/night, or you can get a special candle that’ll slowly turn pink or blue meaning you can do other activities in the meantime.
Perfect if you want the reveal to take a while! You can light up the candle for 20 to 30 minutes before it’ll give away the gender.
17. Written Gender Reveal
Like I said above, sometimes low key simplicity is the best!
Use a message board to spell out your child’s gender. You can then reveal the message board to your guests or use the message board in a photoshoot with your family and share your photos with friends.
If you take photos, remember to add some gender-themed trinkets!
18. Riddle Gender Reveal
Alternatively, use a riddle to reveal your baby’s gender and build suspense in your guests as they wait to get it right.
Spread out your riddle on several pages so that your guests read through. You can attach an envelope on the last page of everyone’s riddle and put a question mark sign on it.
When they open the envelope, they will find your baby’s gender tucked neatly within.
19. Balloon Darts Gender Reveal
19. Balloon Darts Gender Reveal
Create a board covered in a white sheet and attach balloons to it filled with blue or pink paint. When it’s time for the reveal, just throw some darts!
20. Fire Gender Reveal
If the reveal falls during Fall, then a bonfire would be a great idea. Gather everyone around the bonfire and toss in special pouches that’ll change the flames into your baby’s color. Magical!
This could actually turn out to be one of the best Winter gender reveal ideas out there too. Cuddle up inside with some hot cocoa and drinks next to a snug fire. Then when the time is right, throw a little bit of the pouch in the fire!
21. Fireworks Gender Reveal
Use fireworks to announce your baby’s gender. Make them blue or pink and have the guests go wow.
This tip comes with caution though: check that it is legal to use fireworks in your area.
22. Eggs Gender Reveal
Use pink or blue food coloring to fill some eggs in. Give the eggs to the guests and let them crack them at once. They’ll all find the gender as the eggs crack open.
Alternatively, buy a pack of eggs and hard boil all of them except one. Dye half of them pink and the other half of them blue, but make sure that the egg you leave unboiled is dyed your baby’s gender. Your guests can then enjoy seeing you crack eggs on your foreheads. When the unboiled egg cracks open, the dye on its shell will reveal the gender!
Here’s a video showing how that last idea works!
23. Straws Gender Reveal
Place straws that change color in your guests’ ice-cold drinks and get them to find the gender with a white straw that changes blue or one that changes pink.
24. Hair Dye Gender Reveal
Use blue or pink hair dye to reveal your baby’s gender! Dye a little of your hair with the appropriate color and make sure that the dye is on the underneath part of your hair.
Tie your hair up until it’s time to reveal and let your hair down when the secret is out. Could be a great idea when combined with another gender reveal idea.
25. Scavenger Hunt Gender Reveal
You can have all your guests go on a scavenger hunt. When the hunt gets to its last stage, have everyone locate the pink or blue cake in the (cool) oven! (See tip #5)
26. Volcano Gender Reveal
This is another reveal tip for your kids if you already have some.
Make a volcano with the help of your kids. Pour in water, detergent, vinegar, and some coloring. The food coloring should be blue or pink and you should cause the volcano to erupt when your kids add some baking soda.
Gender Reveal Ideas For Your Spouse
But perhaps your spouse doesn’t even know the good news yet! That’s exciting.
If you already have kids, you could either tell them before you tell your husband and get them to be your accomplices of mischief, or you could tell them after your hubby finds out. Just don’t forget to TAKE PICTURES!
You may choose to have a quiet and romantic gender reveal with your partner only. Or it may be that both of you already know the sex of your baby or that only one of you does. Whatever the case, these ideas can come in handy. Check them out!
27. Memory Lane Gender Reveal
Do you and your spouse have any special memories together? Maybe it’s a first date or a Valentines Day memory. Can you think of a clever way of dropping hints while taking a stroll down memory lane with your spouse? If so, perfect!
Maybe you could go to the place of your first date? For example, if it was a park, you could go for a walk there together and tie blue or pink ribbons on one of the trees beforehand, and once you reach the tree, get down on one knee and pull out a ring box with a blue or pink pacifier inside. (I’m crazy, I know!)
Or, if your first date was at a restaurant, maybe eat there together and tip the staff off beforehand and see if they can get in on it! You could order every food with “baby” in the name, e.g. baby potatoes, baby carrots…You get the picture! Maybe even order milk as your drink and have the waiter bring it to you in a baby bottle? (Too far? Ok, too far…)
28. Shared Activity Gender Reveal
If that last suggestion would be too much effort for you, then you could just keep it simple and do an activity together that you love. Seriously, sometimes the simplest ideas are the best and you can’t go wrong if you’re doing something you both love!
For example, if you love fishing you could go fishing together in a pink or blue boat. (I just can’t get enough of those subtle color hints.)
29. Bath Bomb Gender Reveal
You can also give your spouse a special moment and warm up the tub with some fragrant soothing water and light the space up with candles (like they’re at a spa). Then throw the bath bomb into the bath to reveal pink or blue.
30. Bed Sheets Gender Reveal
You can choose instead to enjoy your reveal in bed. All you need to do is make the bed with either blue or pink sheets to match your baby’s sex. He might pick up what you’re having when he sees the sheets.
Best tip: Just in case he doesn’t notice the hint, you might want to have a back-up idea planned in case he doesn’t catch it. That way you can still have a fun time of revealing the gender.
31. Shopping Gender Reveal
Take your partner to the mall and go through the sections. Make sure you end up in the racks that depict the baby’s gender. Pick something pink or blue as their reward.
Or you can do the mall reveal in another way. Give your partner a list of items and have them go on a scavenger hunt through the mall. Let him end up picking an item that is blue or pink.
32. Strawberry/Blueberry Gender Reveal
Spend your reveal night together at dinner. Make a special dessert that includes raspberries or blueberries and whipped cream.
Raspberries are pink while blueberries are blue and, assuming you drop some other well-timed hints too, that might just be enough for him to figure out the baby’s gender.
Holiday Gender Reveal Ideas
If your baby is due during a holiday or you just want to let the news out during a specific holiday, you may want to try a holiday-themed gender reveal party. Here are some of our ideas.
New Year’s Gender Reveal
Use blue or pink confetti to light up your party. Also, if they’re legal to buy near you, blue/pink fireworks would work well too!
Thanksgiving Gender Reveal
Other than Christmas, I can’t think of a more exciting time to reveal your baby’s gender than when surrounded by family!
For a Thanksgiving gender reveal, you could try decorating the table with pink and blue items like mugs and tissues. Serve a pumpkin pie that has the right color within it and have your family try and guess the baby’s gender when they get to the middle of it.
Why not also put little pink or blue boots on your turkey? That’d be pretty hilarious!
Christmas Gender Reveal
If you’re looking for some Christmas gender reveal ideas during pregnancy, we’ve got you covered here too! Christmas is simply the most wonderful time of the year for a gender reveal.
You can choose to wrap your reveal within your Christmas cards letting friends know the gender as they open up their cards. You could even be sneaky and buy an “It’s a boy!” card but then write inside it, “sorry, they were all out of ‘It’s a girl!’”
Fill up stockings with presents wrapped in either blue or pink wrapping paper, or even get Santa to write you a letter to read out to the kids about the present of a new baby brother/sister coming their way soon.
If you want the nerves-of-steel approach, during Christmas prayers, when asking God to bless your whole family, why not just casually include your new baby in the prayer?
You could even wrap a blue or pink ornament under the tree and make it the last present you open together on Christmas morning. After its open, reveal the news and then hang it on the tree. Then you can hang it up every Christmas from then on out.
Easter Gender Reveal
Most Easter gender reveal ideas include Easter boxes with blue and pink tissue or confetti and a big reveal surprise underneath—so you can adapt this general idea for yourself make it work for you!
You could also organize an Easter Egg hunt and get them to find eggs. The one who finds the most eggs could win a big pink or blue Easter egg at the end and also a card they have to unwrap and read out loud to everyone else revealing the gender.
4th Of July Gender Reveal
For 4th of July gender reveal ideas, you could organize a barbecue that includes games that are decorated blue or pink. You could also leave the reveal until last and surprise them with pink or blue fireworks (if legal in your area).
Alternatively, you could buy little blue or pink gift boxes tied in a cute bow filled with blue or pink goodies to give your guests.
Extra Gender Reveal Tips
For people who are new to gender reveal parties or who don’t like organizing so much, they might need extra help with putting the party together. So here are some more gender reveal party tips to help you achieve that.
Keep It Themed
Create a theme for your baby’s party and stick to it. Make sure that you pick items that are colored pink and blue, from napkins to candles to balls to reveal items. Mix this up to keep your guests in a constant guessing mode.
Get An Ultrasound (Duh!)
I know it’s super obvious that you’d have to do this so that you or someone else planning the party would know what gender you’ll be expecting, but it’s still worth providing a reminder! 😉
Once you/they get the pictures of your ultrasound, they can be put in a blue or pink picture frame for your gender reveal or just for a memento later on.
Don’t use a pseudo-scientific gender reveal test since they’re often wrong. Here’s a great article going over the most accurate pregnancy tests on offer.
Think About The Photos
Don’t forget to take photos. Well, I know you won’t. But have you thought about making an actual photo booth complete with props? Or at least given it some extra planning to ensure you get memorable shots?
Get blue or pink confetti flowing in the air, gather the guests around as well as the family and take snapshots. You could also get a sibling to hold up a gender reveal sign in the pictures.
Or want to be zany? You could get some oversized baby costumes (don’t forget the giant diaper and pacifier) for guests to wear inside the photo booth, and print out some photos of funny baby facial expressions that people can try and imitate in the photos.
And don’t forget to use a photo backdrop image preferably containing either blue or pink to serve as background for your photos and make them stand out.
Send Out Some Invitations
Pick a date for your reveal and send off cards and invites to your friends and family in advance so they can make sure they’re free.
Don’t Forget Those Who Couldn’t Come
If there are relatives or close friends who couldn’t make it, consider sending them a reveal box in the mail so they can share in a little bit of the fun.
Deciding Whether A Gender Reveal Party Is For You
Even though gender reveal parties are all the rage these days, it may still be worthwhile to think if this is for you. Here are some questions to consider!
Why Have A Gender Reveal Party
- Build a community around your child.
A gender reveal party is a great way for your family and those closest to you to get to know your baby before it’s even born. This sense of community may really benefit you later down the road and help your child grow up healthy. - Because it’s fun!
A reveal party is supposed to be fun. And who wouldn’t want fun, right? I mean who doesn’t like to gather around for great food and fun moments. - It’s worth celebrating.
A baby is a beautiful gift from God. And that’s something worth celebrating. Your child may even pick up on the love they received before they were born when they look back at the photos later on in life. - It doesn’t have to be expensive.
You can totally throw a gender reveal party on a budget. You can choose some ideas that are inexpensive to carry out and can even make some of the reveal items yourself. If DIY methods do not sound like you, then many of the items we’ve mentioned for your reveal can be bought in dollar stores.
Why Not
- They cost money, take time, and use up energy.
If you’re lacking in money, time, or energy, it’d probably be best to spend it all on actually preparing for your baby. - You may prefer to keep it a secret.
Sometimes keeping the secret limited to just a few people makes it feel more special and significant. But that can totally depend on your personality type. - You may prefer not knowing yourself.
Sometimes not knowing the gender can be a fun surprise. Americans are 50/50 on whether they prefer knowing beforehand the gender of their child. But actively choosing not to know can make for a special moment when it’s finally revealed to you after birth.
Gender Reveal Questions
Here are some frequently asked questions regarding gender reveal parties, and our answers.
Are Gender Reveal Parties Tacky?
This is obviously just my personal opinion, but I think it depends.
If you take it really seriously and treat it as a way to impress people or show-off on social media then yes, but if you just want to celebrate something worthwhile with your family then no.
Is it just a money-making scam created by party companies? I’d say no to that too, despite the fact that I’m sure some party companies will see it like that.
In reality, gender reveal parties have only become available because of the advances in science in recent years. So just because it’s a modern invention, doesn’t make it automatically vain or tacky. It just depends on how you do it!
What Is The Etiquette At A Gender Reveal Party?
| Gender Reveal Party Etiquette | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I need to bring a gift? | No |
| Is it ok to host my own gender reveal party? | Yes |
| Should I have a gender reveal party AND a baby shower? | Only if you discover the gender early |
| Can guests film it and post on social media? | Only with the parents’ permission |
| Do I need to bring food? | No |
| What should the host serve as food? | Typical party food |
| Should the host request a pink/blue dress code? | No |
When it comes to gender reveal parties, you just need to be creative, flexible and fun. We hope these unique gender reveal ideas helped inspire you in planning your special day!
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask and comment below, and finally, congratulations on your new baby!
Chasing Foxes was started in 2016 as a way for Grace and her husband, Silas, to start traveling. However, they started to realize that they had a passion for improving themselves, and wanted to help others level up their lives as well. So whether it's with cooking, travel, or staying healthy, they want to help you better your life bit by bit, as they do the same.